Scotties Fall Hard At Baker

The Scotties were crushed by Baker, 34-0 on Friday, Sept. 13, for their second game of the season. After a resounding victory over Glendive last week, the Scotties fell hard on the gridiron.

It was a frustrating night for the Scotties, according to head coach Greg Liebelt.

“We just got off to a very slow start, a flat start, and they scored right away on a pretty good play,” Liebelt said. “We missed a tackle and they scored.”

The Scotties had the opportunity to tie the game on their first drive in offense, but things went wrong.

“We had a play that would have worked very well, but our quarterback collided with our running back, and we fumbled the ball and gave it away,” Liebelt explained. “It was another misfortunate occurrence.”

Then it got even worse for the team. Junior quarterback Jason Thibault injured himself on the team’s second drive.

“We stopped them in defense and got a good drive offensively,” Liebelt said. “Then on the third play, our quarterback got injured on the hand and had to leave the game and go to the hospital.”

Thibault left his teammates early in the game, making it harder offensively for the Scotties, but also affecting the spirit of the team.

“It seems like we never really recovered from that,” Liebelt commented. “The players probably got down and frustrated, and we made a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball. Against a team like Baker you can’t really play like that.”

The Scotties stayed with Baker until halftime, only trailing by 14. However, the team had not scored a single point in the first half, showing that Thibault’s absence was hard to recover from offensively. On the defensive side, the team could not stop Baker in the second half. They conceded two more touchdowns, one in each quarter.

“We turned the ball over on the second half on a kickoff return, and they scored again.”

Coach Liebelt said that the game was frustrating and disappointing, adding that the Scotties are a much better team than what they showed on Friday night.

“It was pretty similar to our game in Fairfield last year,” he said. “We played poorly, but stayed with them until the wheels came off and that was it. It’s an emotional game, and the players had such high expectations … When things go wrong like that, it gets really frustrating. You worked that hard, you played hard and things were just not happening. It’s hard to keep them motivated, especially against a team that keeps bringing it at you.”

But Scotties fans can be reassured: Jason Thibault is back in practice this week and should be ready to play for the homecoming game against Shelby this Friday.

“I got tackled and injured my throwing hand,” Thibault said. “I got stitches and I believe I will be able to play for the next game with a bandage over it.”

The game against Shelby should be a good test for the Scotties, according to Liebelt.

“It’s a great challenge for us to get things straightened up,” he said. “Shelby is a good competitive team, going 3-0. It is homecoming, so there is a little bit of distraction, but we look at it as being a good chance to rebound and get the season rolling in the right direction.”

The game will kick off at 7 at Scottie field on Friday night.